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In 1942 the Japanese army is thrusting southwards and Australia fears invasion. Bill Parsons becomes concerned, and leaves his homestead in northern Australia along with his wife and two daughters, Mary and Helen. They join up with a cattle drive heading south led by Dan McAlpine. Others on the drive include the shonky Corky; British former sailor, Sinbad; Aboriginal stockmen, Nipper and Jackie.

The cattle drive is extremely difficult, encountering crocodiles, blazing heat and other dangers. Mary and Sinbad start a romance. Dan speaks out against Corky's plans to develop the Northern Territory.

The film came about because the Australian government were concerned that Australia's contribution to the war effort was not being sufficiently recognised. They contacted Britain's Ministry of Information, who in turn spoke with Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios, who was enthusiastic about the idea of making a film in Australia. He sent Harry Watt out to find a subject. Watt travelled the country as an official war correspondent and guest of the Australian government. He would spend eighteen months in Australia making the film.[1]

Watt decided to exploit the Australian landscape by making a film set entirely outdoors. When visiting a government office in Canberra to advise on making documentaries, he heard about an incident in 1942 when 100,000 cattle were driven 2,000 miles in the Northern Territory to escape a feared Japanese invasion.[5]

Watt was only allowed to import four technicians from Britain to assist - editor Inman Hunter, cinematographer Osmond Borradaile, production supervisor Jack Rix[6] and camera operator Carl Kayser. The rest of the crew were drawn from Australia.

Watt spent 1944 travelling the route of the trek. Dora Birtles researched the subject in government files and archives. She later wrote a novelisation of the script which was published.

There were nine lead roles and the casting process took two months.[7] Watt ended up selecting four professional actors, an experienced amateur, and four newcomers to films. Chips Rafferty, who Watt described as an "Australian Gary Cooper"[8] was given his first lead role. Daphne Campbell was a nursing orderly who had grown up in the country but had never acted before. She was screen tested after her picture was seen on the cover of a magazine, and selected over hundreds of applicants.[9] Peter Pagan had worked in Sydney theatre and was serving in the army when selected by Watt.[10] Clyde Combo and Henry Murdoch were cast as the aboriginal stockmen; they came from Palm Island because Harry Watt believed Northern Territory aboriginals did not speak English sufficiently well.[11]

Chips Rafferty and John Nugent-Hayward were paid £25 a month for five months.[12]

Five hundred cattle were purchased by Ealing for use in the film. They were marked with the "overland" brand and later sold off for profit.

Shooting began in April 1945 at Sydney's North Head quarantine station, which stood in for the meat export centre at Wyndham in Western Australia.[13] The unit was then flown by the RAAF to Alice Springs where they were based in an army camp.[7]

A second unit headed by John Heyer spent several weeks filming movement of cattle from the air.[14]

Three months later, the unit moved to the Roper River camp on the Elsey Station for another month, where the river crossing sequence was shot. This station was famous from the book We of the Never Never. In mid-September the unit returned to Sydney after five months of shooting.[15]

During the making of the film, Campbell met and married her future husband.[16]

The Australian government later declared they spent £4,359 to assist in the production of the film.[17]

Post production work was done in Britain. The film score was written by the English composer John Ireland. It was his only film score. An orchestral suite was extracted from the score by the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras after Ireland's death.

Harry Watt claimed the original ending was more cynical, finishing with the unscrupulous 'Corky' being the only one who got a good job out of the trek, and a fade out on a roar of sardonic laughter from the rest of the overlanders. However he says he was advised to put a more upbeat ending.[18]

Ealing were so pleased with Rafferty's performance they signed him to a long-term contract even before the film had been released.

Neither Rafferty nor Campbell were able to make the film's Sydney premiere because Rafferty was making a film in the UK, and Campbell was looking after a one-week-old baby in Alice Springs. However local actor Ron Randell attended and was mobbed.[16]

Reviews were extremely positive[19] and the film was enormously successful at the box office in Australia and Britain; by February 1947 it was estimated 350,000 Australians had seen it, making it the most widely seen Australian film of all time.[20] It was also the first Ealing picture to be widely seen in Europe.

Daphne Campbell received Hollywood enquiries and made a series of screen tests in Sydney but elected not to pursue a Hollywood career, staying with her husband and children in Alice Springs.[22] Peter Pagan moved overseas and worked extensively in the US and London.

Some minor changes for censorship were made for the film's US release including the removal of the word "damn".[23] The film was listed one of the 15 best films of the year by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times.[24]